BIMtopia

Module 2 - Points to Ponder

Submitted For
Module 2 - Points to Ponder
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Please share your comments on 3 of the following Points to Ponder questions. (Choose 3 of the 5 questions below.)

What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?

  • What do they need?
    • The key stakeholders are the architect, structural engineer, civil engineer, and MEP consultants. They need a model to be able to accurately estimate a project and obtain detailed plans.
  • What do they care about most?
    • I believe they care most about ensuring their designs are usable and operable in real life. This requires much collaboration across different trades, which is made more feasible with a working model.

How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?

  • As you develop your initial design?
  • As you continue to iterate and develop on your design?
  • What are the key stages?
  • And how much detail should you include at each stage?

How much detail should you include about the composition (layers, materials, thicknesses) of your wall, floor, and roof assemblies at different stages of your design process?

  • Conceptual design
  • Preliminary design
  • Design development
  • Construction documentation

Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.

  • What is the advantage to manufacturers for providing these families? (it's not free to create and provide them...)
    • Providing these families allow for doors and windows from these manufacturers to easily be included in building models. The convenience of this would result in more AEC firms choosing those specific manufacturers for their projects.
  • What is the benefit to you as the designer of using these manufacturer-provided families? Is there an advantage to using them versus the families provided in the Revit library?
    • Manufacture-provided families are most likely more accurate to real life products than families provided by the Revit library. This is helpful in reducing the number of issues that arise on a project mid construction.

What are the advantages of getting the Revit component families (for furniture, equipment, and fittings) directly from the manufacturer versus from an online sharing website like RevitCity.com?

Obtaining Revit component families directly from manufacturers provides an extra layer of insurance that these components will be true to life when introduced to the project. There is more confidence in the fact that the components will fit into the realized building just like they do in the model. Components uploaded from online sharing sites do not carry this same level of confidence, and it is likely that issues will later be encountered with these objects.